YSA Conference Day 2 Evening: Dictionary to the main halls stat!

I was heading back to my room when I came across a group of YSA who were messing around in the main square, one of the guys was teling people whilst pointing to one of the girls

" This girl is evil, oxidise her, oxidise her!"
I paused and looked at him
" You want us to expose her to oxygen?" ( and before anyone jumps down my throat I know thats probably not the right definition) The guy paused
" Wait what?"
" Your asking us to oxidise her?"
" What word do I mean?"
" Try ostracise"


I walked away with a grin on my face pleased that maybe, just maybe I can teach the younger YSA a thing or two. I was almost at my hall when I ran into E one of the students who goes to Loughborough University and will be back at the end of September. She had managed to massivily confuse me the previous night because she has grown her hair and died it blonde so she looks completely different and so I didn't recognise her so I had no idea who this blonde girl was walking down the road towards me waving at me. I met a couple of her friends so that made five new aquaintences in one day! I think more then the other conferences combined. Maybe I could get the hang of this talking to new people and making friends. Plus they were talking to me back which to be honest was a much needed boost of confidence at that point.




After a quick chance it was time for dinner. I got into the queue for the dining room quite near the front fortunatly as it grew very rapidly behind me!

It seemed that this year they had decided to forgo the traditional BBQ and go with a 'standard' meal. Now I'll say 'standard meal' because to be perfectly honest I still have no idea what it was. It was some sort of pasta something, but beyond that I have no idea.

I was only able to eat a bit of it though as it was not good.

With two hours to spare before the start of the ball though I did have a option and yes you guessed it. It was time for another visit to Engineseers brand of generic high street resturant. Which also meant I had two free glasses after that visit. But again as usual I digress.

It did also show a interesting difference between Males and Females. A lot of girls were fretting that two hours was not enough time to get ready in time. Me I was able to go to get something to eat, read a book, take a shower, polish my shoes and still have ten minutes spare to get ready. Mind you I'm not sure why I spent all that time polishing my shoes as people don't really look at shoe do they, but at least I was making a effort.

I got to the dance and the band had already started exactly on time. The refreshments for the Summer ball were 'interesting' in as much as they weren't your typical refreshments. Someone had obivousily decided as YSA we wanted something that tasted nice and would give us lots of energy.

So the trays of refreshments were just trays of sweets ( best comic book guy voice) best refreshments ever!

In previous years they have hired dodgems for just outside the centre. This year they hired a big wheel instead!

The ball was a lot of fun as always with a live band and lots of dancing

The only downside was it finished at 11pm. They were still very strict about wanted us all in bed by midnight! But at least this year they didn't quote scripture.

Just before the end of the Ball I noticed the guy I had met in the self defence class was sitting at the top of the steps in the sports centre foyer clinging onto the railing and looking like he was about to burst into tears. So I sat down and had a chat with him, ironically it turned out he had many of the same fears and worries I had. Talking about not meeting a girl, how he thought people were judging him and he was running out of time. I was a bit surprised he had that viewpoint as it was his first conference and he was only 22. I managed to cheer him up a bit when he mentioned that he was going to BYU and he was worried as he was English no one would talk to him. I pointed out that based on previous experiences with English people going to BYU he was more likely going to have a problem with too many people trying to talk to him and was going to be beating them off with a stick.

I made my way back to my room feeling on quite a high, despite two serious knocks I had made several new aquaintances, been able to help someone else and was feeling very focussed for the day ahead after the devotional at the end of the ball as a guy had sung an amazing song and the spirit in that room was just so powerful when he had finished

Things were good